Go to court, go to court or no court, no court

– PART 1

The two significant dates Tuesday, July 24 and Thursday, August 10, 2012, have come and gone but certainly, not without comments. These two dates have been recorded in the annals of Ghana history as probably the darkest moments of the Ghanaian. The first, of course, was when the then Chief of Staff at the presidency, Henry Martey Newman, suddenly jumped on the airwaves and announced to all Ghanaians and the world that the third president of the 4th Republic, John Evans Atta Mills had passed on. Whether it was true or not, Ghanaians had to put up with his statement. But one pertinent thing that went amiss was whether he was the rightful person to have disclosed this vital information. Where was he when the ‘so called’ doctors/ pathologists at the famous 37 Military Hospital declared him dead. How was he conveyed from the Osu Castle to the hospital? In an ambulance or was a passenger on a Ford/ Land Cruiser? The Castle has a clinic supposedly with a qualified doctor. And if so, why did he not accompany the president in his half strength condition to the hospital that was some 3 miles away? Were the telephone lines at the Castle jn good order that a receptionist could have informed the hospital authorities of the conveyance of the president to them? Or as usual, the phone lines could not reach them. Did any officer/ official from the Castle not have any cell phone to contact the 37 Hospital ahead of time to alert them before their arrival? Where were Koku Anyidohu and the ADC at that time when the president was in dying mood? Was he left to his fate? And if so, why did they treat him like that? Where was the point of call at the hospital? Is it true that the vehicle that was used (reportedly told it was not an ambulance) to convey him first reported at the maternity ward precisely, the Yaa Asantewaa Ward – where every regular visitor to the hospital knows that it was a ward meant for only females. Further leads also showed that from the maternity area, the messengers who, probably had been debriefed to nail the president to death continued their tour of the hospital to the pediatrician ward where, again, the sick and fainted patient was obviously not a child. However, another source gathered by this author reveals that the pediatrician ward only caters for children from a day-old to 15 years and one really wonders whether those who trekked from the Castle to the hospital had been instructed to toy with him just to kill time and ensure that before they got to the correct ward, he would certainly be dead and could not be revived by any specialist doctor there. However, the most pathetic and ironic statement to come from Mr. Mills’s biological brother, Cadman Mills was that the doctors at this prestigious hospital had come out with an autopsy report that his brother had died as a result of “massive stroke” - a situation that, till now, cannot hold water. After being resettled at the Castle by his brother president (job for the boys) for no special work done for Ghana and earning/fetching for himself some Gh?6,000. 00/month excluding the other fringe benefits and the juicy perks, could look up to the skies and support the pathologists to pronounce his own brother dead of massive stroke. Have readers realized how MONEY can influence shallow minds to do evil at the expense of truth? Well, wonders, they say, will never end in Ghana and can perpetually not end in this country supposed inarguably to be the centre of the world.

MILLENNIUM FUNERAL/BURIAL

This article is not meant to impugn the integrity of the funeral committee members but Ghanaians and the world at large could be the best judges. The pomp and pageantry associated with the celebration is indescribable. The expenditure incurred from day one to date by the committee undoubtedly with 101% support from government is yet to be made public. When many Ghanaians yearned for the correct thing to be done in connection with the unprecedented funeral/burial; we were asked to hold onto our horses and everything will be made public. One year has passed on. The anniversary celebration that was spanned for a week starting from Wednesday, July 24 through to July 31, 2013, has also come and gone. Today, Wednesday, August 7, nothing has been heard from the septuagenarian Kofi Totobi Quakyi and his bunch of committee members. Why the silence and feet dragging? The people must know their accounts and debts if any. They should however, not throw dust into our eyes that there were this and that benefactors or hundreds of benevolent and corporate bodies, for the love of Ghana, and not knowing what to do with their money and resources could just get up and dish out monies for the funeral/burial of our president whose demise, even smacks of some treachery and smells of rat.

TRADITIONAL

Back home in our traditional set up in Ghana, most funerals have been held on Saturdays and Sundays for memorial and thanksgiving at the various church houses. Except on a few occasions, that they are held on Thursdays and Sundays by some section of the society. Thereafter, when the funerals are held on Saturdays, immediately to be followed with church service the next day, obviously, the Monday following is used for family gathering to thrash out any debts incurred and to pay off some creditors for drinks, chairs, canopies, bandsmen, funeral undertakers and caterers if any; in case the food served at the funeral grounds was not prepared by the family members themselves but by different persons. Since the anniversary celebration finished on Wednesday 31st and there has been more than a week’s grace, one would have thought that the public would have been told now of the expenditure incurred and to know the percentage of this ‘gargantuan’ debt that would be apportioned to them for absorption in the form of fuel and the other utility bills. As for Ghanaians, ‘ehuru koraa a, ebedwo’ to wit, no matter how abnormal certain harsh government decision have been unleashed to further worsen the plight of the Ghanaian, as characteristic of the Ghanaian, we would only talk, moan, and continue to talk, talk, talk; once, the government has arrogated pride unto herself and decided to stiffen the neck to rope in its desired revenue, there would be no turning back to budge the hue and cry of the suffering masses. Now the people are ready for the bitter pill to be forced down their throat so the earlier the Totobi Quakyi committee comes out with the balance sheet or the trial balance for the auditors to peruse the better it would be for him. There is not enough room for him now to toy with the life of the average Ghanaian.

TRUISM

Seasoned economists say Ghana’s total debt now stands at Gh?39.1bn. Of this fantastic and gargantuan but unprecedented figure, a whopping Gh¢32bn stands in the name of the Mills-Mahama-Amissah Arthur for the period January 7, 2009 to June 30, 2013 i.e. a period of 66 months. This is suicidal. This is incredible. This is unbelievable. This is unprintable. Personally, the author’s only monumental landmarks that could ever pass for a government to government competition on TV3 Mentor since Nkrumah’s days are the magnificent twin edifices at the Kotoka Airport junction that house the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the 10-kilometer stretch of road from the La ‘T’ Junction from the International Trade Fair area towards the Liberation Road at the 37 Military Hospital crossroads. All the others the government touts for having done are just rhetoric, propaganda and populist gimmicks.

RESEARCH LIBRARY

Since when did Kwame Pianim, one of Ghana’s renowned and celebrated economists become a fully paid emissary of NDC? Not quite long ago, this chameleon politician or do I say, ‘stomach’ politician, or possibly, recently turned coat NDC fanatic, Kwame, who, is on record as having said, Mr. Mills was such a morally upright and patriotic person that he could vouch for as someone who could turn down huge monetary offers (bribes) and turn off his (Mills) kind friends from corrupting him with monies concealed in A3 size envelopes from his office at the Osu Castle. Was Kwame Pianim considered a good traitor of NPP to befit his chairmanship position of the committee to plan, execute and manage the Atta Mills Research Library to be located right opposite the Cape Coast Castle? Or should It be a perennial assumption that once a stomach politician, always a politician. As previously stated and indicated in the earlier submission, wonders will never end otherwise, since when did the septuagenarian politician, Kwame Pianim, soon after the demise of the deceased president, renew his intimacy with the Mahama government to nicodemously renew his yawning ties to be now wining and dining with the NDC when in fact his mother party members knew for a fact that it was because of money that prompted him and directed him to go globe-trotting for alms with a bowl in hand? So therefore, it was no wonder, surprise and miracle that he was spotted on our television screens at the closing session of the Mills anniversary in Cape Coast that he had been mandated by the government to chair the committee to ensure the full construction of the Atta Mills Research Library in Cape Coast came to pass because ‘adze wo fie a, oye’. Could the quantified cost of this library be compared to the life of Mr. Mills? Or do we assume that ‘all die be die’ so if Mr. Mills is dead and gone – as every person will die – and no matter how miraculously his death came about, we the people of Cape Coast should prefer the modern edifice of a Research Library to his continued existence? Is it true that Mr. Pianim has an European spouse and that his children do not live here? What amount of money/monetary gains at all does this man Kwame want in life that he doesn’t have or hasn’t got till now to be still chasing for money for his children who it is rumoured, are staying abroad? Why do some people delight to sell their birthright and go on to exchange their dignity, integrity and honour for pittance? However, how much will be his remuneration including all the freebies as chairman of that committee between now and completion of that project? The writer does not think that Kwame, obviously is one of the many persons who would, despise monetary gains, wash their faces upwards i.e. bottom-to-top, instead of the natural top-to-bottom – i.e. from the forehead to the chin.

PUZZLE

How much will the monthly salary of an appointee in the Mahama-led government who doubles as a Member of Parliament and a deputy minister be? We are told now that the MPs collect monthly stipend of Gh¢7,500.00 and deputy ministers also collect Gh¢8,500.00. What ‘take home’ pay will that person collect as his salary? Will the total be both the Gh¢7,500.00 and Gh¢8,500.00 respectively? Someone should tell the author and all Ghanaians. Please rush the answer for public consumption.

HUMOUR

Who are the lucky beneficiaries of the over 300 saloon cars and the 100 vans at the precincts of the State House? Are they for the foot-soldiers but because the distribution is delayed hence the intolerable situation to prompt their anger and vehemence towards the disapproval of chief executives appointed by the president nationwide. The Ghana Police are at it again. What at all did the three policemen who accosted Gabby Otchere Darko, one of the NPP Petitioners’ legal team in front of the Hinlone Restaurant opposite the Labone Senior High School near the Labone SDA Church/School find from his car? Were they acting as state sponsored team to drop a parcel of wrapped marijuana and to later trail him to find fault with him and charge before the courts? Why do people act in such queer and primitive ways like that? The trio should bow their heads in shame and their masters who tasked them to perform that function should equally be ashamed of them -selves. Before the curtain is drawn down, the author wishes to draw the attention of readers that but for the armed robbery at Dodowa recently, not many people knew that DSP/SP Kwesi Ofori had undergone Ken ‘Saro Wiwa’ Kuranchie’s circuitous transfers from Accra to all over the place. By: amaningkwarteng1@gmail.com

GO TO COURT, GO COURT OR NO COURT, NO COURT – PART 2

The author pleads with the reading public to exercise patience to be able to read the concluding parts to sift the wheat from the chaff and make individual informed opinion. Please read on.

COMPATRIOTS

Our own compatriots clandestinely and cruelly masterminded and murdered our three High Court judges, Cecilia Koranteng- Addow, Sarkodie, Agyepong and the Army Major, Sam Acquah. They became victims of that dastard inhuman treatment as sacrificial lambs. Sadly and incidentally, the within-named lady was a nursing mother. Pity, isn’t it? Even though they are dead and gone, a book entitled “Judges Murder Trial” authored by Daniel Agyekum, then a leading member of the Tribunal that tried the suspects: Joachim Amartey Kwei, Cpl. Gadzekpo, Cpl. Tekpor, L/Cpl. Kwame Amedeka and others, clearly testify that evidence. Even so, before Joachim Amartey Kwei died, he was certainly on the verge of mentioning the names of his other accomplices because he thought he should not only die to suffer the brunt of others who were undoubtedly the master-brains – but, alas, time was not on his side. The writer seeks the undue permission to revisit this subject once more. He does not really want to, nor intend to rake the already healed wounds of the bereaved families and loved ones. The essence of this revisit is to refresh the memories of the youth of today who do not know the history of the sordid past as well as the sudden predicament of the judicial services and the judges without whom the institution wouldn’t have been there. As the Martyrs Day has become an annual affair and this year’s celebrated just some 6 weeks ago, the anniversary should re-echo, rekindle and reverberate in their minds to emulate the example of their departed former colleagues. It is therefore imperative that His Lordship William Atuguba and his colleagues on the bench would equally set an unparalleled record never ever set by a team of judicial experts on the African Continent.

DR. EPHRAIM AMU

This point reminds people of the song composed by Ghana’s celebrity, Dr. Ephraim Amu of “Yen ara asaase ni, eye aboo denden ma yen, mogya na nananom hwiee gui de too ho ma yen, Aduru me ne wo nso so, se yebe ye bi atoa so, nimdee ntraso kotokranee ne apese menko menya, adi yen bra mu dem, ama yen asaase yi ato mu see’, with the subsequent chorus repeating itself twice. ‘Oman no se ebeye yie, oman no se ennye yie, eye nsennaho se amanfoo bra na ekyere.” It therefore behoves entirely on the 9 Justices to muster courage without fear or favour, tribe, creed, to administer justice so as to be perpetually recognized in the annals of Ghana and to be remembered by the world in the Guinness Book of Records. No doubt, it is hopeful that you would deliver when the times comes in the not too distant future to be counted amongst the world’s best disciplined and principled justices who stood their grounds between life and death to have their names printed in GOLD. Their duty is to serve Mother Ghana but not an individual.

GO TO COURT, GO TO COURT ……..

Again, the author will like to revisit a previous article written earlier on in the year. The following is an excerpt culled from that article to buttress his point. There was a case between the Republic and one E.K. Sallah, one of the victims who suffered the infamous dismissals then in vogue that affected some 568 persons all over the place. E.K. Sallah was the General Manager of the Ghana National Holding Corporation (GNTC). This man became dissatisfied with the government action. He later consulted with his solicitors and headed for the law courts for redress. Not very pleased, he continued with the legal tussle until government (A-G’s Office) was defeated. That was in early 70s and the eminent judges won his case for him i.e. in the ensuing process - The Republic versus E.K. Sallah - the victim became victorious. As if the whole country had been engulfed in a devastating whirlwind and petrified, within a matter of 24 hours, Dr. Busia from nowhere, quickly like quicksilver in thunderous mood, jumped onto Ghana’s only airwaves – the GBC - the electronic mouthpiece then prevailing; to unashamedly nullify the court decision. From the rooftops and with a hoarse voice, that was uncharacteristic of Prof. Kofi Busia, yelled, “No Court, No Court, No Court in Ghana could annul his government decision to sack the 568 persons including this Sallah man. The dismissals later became known as Apollo 568. In the likely/unlikely event that the ongoing case favours/disfavor Mr. John Dramani Mahama, he would not, repeat not, replicate the Busia’s Apollo 568 drama that probably culminated in his sudden downfall. If he did, he will not be the gentleman we know of by re-echoing Stephen Atubiga’s clarion call of not accepting the verdict of the 9-member panel of Justices who, initially, had vehemently vouched never to accept the court ruling because they could not decide the fate of the 24 million Ghanaians. This ‘criminal contemptuous behaviour’ sent him to jail for three days. He shouldn’t attempt to climb to the roof a police armoured vehicle; and with hoarse voice say, “NO COURT, NO COURT; certainly, NO COURT IN GHANA COULD NULLIFY THE ELECTIONS” like Prof. Kofi Abrefa Busia. Who is Owula Mangotey? Why the careless/reckless outbursts? Has anybody heard his recorded voice on tape? Was he in the right frame of mind at Radio Gold that day?

THE ALTAR CALL

Now is the hour. The hour has struck. In the near distant future, the tables could turn for the oppressed to regain his freedom from the oppressor and the vanquished to perpetually enjoy eternal freedom. This article, however, is not in anyway meant to prejudice the ongoing Mother of all Cases – far from it; the author is just an ordinary small fly in the wilderness preaching like John the Baptist to announce the advent of Jesus Christ unto mankind. Obviously, the time for Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan to stand up from amongst the crowd and probably confess his sins committed against Mother Ghana before, during and after the 2012 General Elections is long overdue. His actions, inactions, infractions, etc. marred the beauty of the just ended democratic game. His day for ‘pardon’ really ended at about 17.20 hours on Day 46 of the Election Petition Hearing, when the presiding judge, His Eminence Lordship, Justice William Atuguba, jokingly caused some laughter to flex muscles. Now Dr. Afari Djan, you remember when you asked the aggrieved party (NPP) “to go to court – you see go to court, go to court; have you now seen how hot go to court go to court really entails?” That statement alone brought spontaneous and uncontrollable laughter into the courtroom and that brought some little smiles onto the face of the embattled doctor. Hypothetically, however, if the writer were this controversial and embattled Dr. Afari Djan, he would throw away his arrogance, shame and pride to the dogs even days before that Day 46 came to an end. He would have mustered courage; owned up, throw in the towel and asked for total forgiveness from Ghanaians. Thereafter, he would beg the 9-member panel to expect his written plea of remorsefulness to the hierarchy of the Supreme Court to show a sign of genuine repentance. The indication here would mean that after sober reflection and with a complete sullen heart as the man at the centre of raging controversy, say, “My distinguished Lordships, I have sinned against God and humanity. I have been misled. I have been deceived by monetary gains. I acted childishly; my hired agents and assigns have let me down woefully. My total negligence for not cross-checking the facts and figures have caused a major havoc. Honestly, without the slightest thought of any evil intention and patriotism, the hurriedly-prepared results were declared. I mistakenly pressed the trigger; but for the love of God for Mother Ghana, the weapon that was ready to fire, refused to fire. I admit that I acted foolishly. I forgot that the ultimate consequences could have endangered the peace and security of the country and plunged the whole nation into war but thanks be to God, the gun never fired. Never did I realize anywhere that the election results that I childishly pronounced in haste would be contested in the courts on the premise of falsifications, violations, irregularities, duplications and fraud. That was the basis for my bluff that any dissatisfied group or aggrieved party could go to court for redress – knowing very well that Ghanaians, peaceful as they characteristically are, would let the sleeping dogs lie and forget about everything. In the mighty name of God, please pardon me, and tamper justice with mercy. That would have been a perfect admission of guilt to stop the whole episode. The economic loss to the nation, the disaffection and helplessness in every Ghanaian as at now are the woes of Afari Djan. If he were able to do that, that would become a judicial landmark and imprint in our history. Furthermore, my Lordships, the facts and figures of the “PINK SHEETS” in the custody of the Petitioners, copies of which are already in your custody, are the true and genuinely authenticated ones. Nothing more! After this disclosure, and perhaps coming from a well rehearsed repentant/contrite heart, obviously, the Justices, human as they are who can also err, declare: “I, Dr. Kwadwo Afari Djan, do hereby, from a very repentant heart, entreat your majesties, to pronounce the verdict of the ongoing case, to the vanquished - the Petitioners. Their party won the elections. If he was able to do that openly, (but it is too late for now) the Justices, human as they are, certainly would be glad to know how they would go about their job. And believe you me, all the angelic hosts in the high heavens, would descend to sing the hallelujah chorus in GHANA that the inevitable has happened that the imminent war never settled the Ghana score-line. And by this, it is certain that Afari Djan might win back favour from God like David in the scriptures. The visionary signs are on the walls that between now and latest, predictably, Thursday, August 29, 2013, the Ghanaian will redeem his self esteem when hopefully, the SC shall have wound up their business to pronounce the Centenary Verdict to enable foreign investments that have been temporarily stalled and frozen by development partners to return with their freebies to bring back smiles onto our faces when the pendulum swung to enable them also enjoy their hard earned vacation that is long overdue.

ADMONITION – With a heavy heart I pray “Oh Lord, strengthen the judges to give a good account of themselves; but strike anybody who, for want of money, wealth, prosperity or power/position to influence them to suppress and pervert justice at this crucial moment at the expense of the suffering masses together with all their accomplices, hired agents/assigns and families blind, deaf and dumb and extend same to their seven generations. Such families should never ever see peace and the light of day in their lives as long as Jehovah liveth for the Battle ahead is the Lord’s.” For consolation, please read Jeremiah 29:10-14 - Amen.

By: amaningkwarteng1@gmail.com